Using children in election campaigns

should be banned. I do not care if they are "child actors" there is something very, very wrong with using children to try and sell your political message.

Seeing politicians hugging babies is bad enough. It is something which can be blamed on a parent either being too nervous to refuse or to anxious for the photo opportunity. The baby will suffer embarrassment later in life but that is not the issue here.

Children are being used in an advertisement which cherry picks comments by politicians the "climate" based party disagrees with and wants to see ousted. The comments themselves are being used out of context in an attempt to convince voters that this is what the policies of these politicians are all about. That there might be another side or two or three to the story is of no concern to them. This is politics. It is an election campaign. The gloves are off. 

Yes, we can expect that but this advertisement is using children who are not aware of the complexities of the debate. How can they be when most adults are not aware? It is being used to try and influence not just adults but children. Children do not vote. Yes, their parents do and this is designed to try, among other things, to get children to tell their parents how to vote. "Vote for these people or our future will be ruined." It is designed to make parents feel guilty, not just now but well into the future.

I became the doting aunt of yet another baby yesterday. The first for S...  I am delighted to have another one to buy books for but I also worry what the future holds for him. The idea that he has come into an already overcrowded world does concern me. I do hope I can do something more for the future but do I have another project in me? I know I have to try. 

I must try but it does not mean taking the easy way out and thinking that a vote for a group of radicals with no real policy ideas beyond climate fantasies will change the world. It won't. Children should not be used in this way.